Geneva, March 6, 1914 (PM 031)

This prayer teaches us how to deal with the pain of separation from a loved one.

Geneva, March 06, 1914

AFTER I had acutely suffered from their suffering, I turned towards Thee in an attempt to heal it by infusing into it a little of the divine Love, source of all peace and happiness. We must not run away from suffering, we must not love and cultivate it either, we must learn how to go down deep enough in it to make it a lever which will have the power to force open the doors of the eternal consciousness and enter into the serenity of Thy unvarying oneness.

Certainly this sentimental and physical attachment which produces a wrench when the bodies separate, is childish from a certain point of view, when we contemplate the impermanence of outer forms and the reality of Thy essential oneness; but on the other hand, is not this attachment, this personal affection, an unconscious effort of men to realise externally as far as possible, that fundamental oneness towards which they are ever tending without even being aware of it? And precisely for this reason, is not the suffering produced by the separation one of the most effective means of transcending this outer consciousness, of replacing this superficial attachment by the integral realisation of Thy eternal oneness?

It was this that I wished for them all; it was this that I ardently willed for them, and it was for this that I, assured of Thy victory and certain of Thy triumph, confided to Thee their grief so that Thou mightest by illumining heal it.

O Lord, grant that all this beauty of affect.

The text above is quoted from the Third Edition, 1954 (translation by Rishabhchand Samsukha)
This book is freely available at https://www.auro-ebooks.com/prayers-and-meditations-1954-edition/